In Reply to: legian restaurant recommendations posted by craigl on Saturday, 22. December 2007 at 15:52 Bali Time:
Extract from March 06- Legian Area restaurants
Wayan & Friends (D) on Jl Padma was as usual busy but fine service & food
Ketumbar (D) was a nice meal. I had seafood fettuccine and enjoyed the setting upstairs watching the passing parade on Melasti .We met the manager Giorgio Curti who provided a nice complimentary liqueur.
Bamboo Corner (L&D) I can't remember having a disappointing meal here - good value for money
Goshas (D) I enjoyed the dinner company Tcoupe & hubby Tony,Tina & Lynn but I was a little disappointed in the meal this time.
Warung Jogya (L) twice next door to Garden View Cottages on Jl. Padma Utara is such good value for money, a clean kitchen. And very basic décor but great cooking. Mei gorreng I think 12000
Posers (L) can't remember what I had - was OK but I don't like the location right on the road & corner - carbon monoxide entrée.
Garden View Cottages (D) Had the baked dinner - basic but hot and fresh - we got they're early - 50000 all you can eat. The darling Pom Kirsty (not you David) - I will tell you about her later - just loved the roast dinner as she had been away from home for 4 months.
Warung Kartini (D) behind Sri Ratu a family warung well most are aren't they - only newly open - now the décor is 'how do you do' but the atmosphere with all the family - mum & the kids serving - dad cooking - oh how wonderful - 5 of us ate and drank and the bill was 130000. They gave us a 'complimentary omelet and a fruit platter'. The 5 of us loved the place, the food & the people. I think our tips outranked the bill. I took a ton of stuff to them before I left - stuff for the kids - and I emptied out my fridge. They were so happy as I had 3 big bags full of goodies. Dad was impressed with the torch and Gran loved the umbrella.
Extract from March 07
This trip I decided to pretend that I was a food critic working in my imagination for Michelin and allocating the famous Michelin stars - being Bali I allocated frangipanis instead.
I rated restaurants out of 10 and warungs/cafes out of 5
Restaurant : Breeze
Location : Jln Sahadewa Legian
Ambience & Service: Situated on Garlic Lane on the site of the old Indonational. You are able to sit further back if you wish under a fan but most diners favour the first few tables to watch the passing parade. The colour scheme of hot pink and black left me wondering about the choice of the name 'Breeze' and I kept thinking why not sea breeze blues or ice wind greens. I would not like to sit in this atmosphere suffering a hangover or migraine and on a hot afternoon the colours were a little confronting- more suited to a late night disco with flashing lights and a DJ. Cold towels on arrival are most appreciated .The staff are all friendly and attentitive and you will never feel alone as staff love a chat yet aren't intrusive. Desa runs a friendly environment for her staff
Menu & Presentation:
A good variety with plenty of choices for even the basic eater. I enjoyed rissoles and onion gravy one day, Sharon loved the Caesar salad, Garlic prawns OK and as many do they were a little over cooked. The milk shakes were wonderful and icy as were all the fresh juices especially the lemon juice. All meals are presented appealingly.
Prices:
Garlic prawns 45,000
Steak burger 25,000
Rissoles 40,000
Milkshakes 12,000
Juice 10,000
Cap Coy 20,000
Avocado& Prawn cocktail 20,000
I dined here on a few occasions and was not once disappointed with the food. I would class this as a café rather than compare to the restaurant and thus as a café I would rate differently which is out of 5
Frangipani Rating: 5
Restaurant: Legends
Location: Jln Sahadewa Legian
Ambience & Service
Can be both busy and quiet depending on the time of day and the occasion. Another 'on the street' establishment with frangipani trees growing in the mid open air area in the center of the restaurant. Staff are friendly and engaging. This place has a better nighttime atmosphere, as its daytime appeal is somewhat drab and the street noise a little distracting
Menu & Presentation:
Quite a varied menu and as I dinned on St Pats night rather late it would be unfair to allocate any rating as you could have served me Ratsak and I would have requested that you pass me the tomato sauce. I think I had the Nasi Campur which I did enjoy. I stuck to the Bintangs so can't comment on the strength of the cocktails.Price:Meals are reasonably priced
Frangipani Rating : 5
Restaurant : Warung Yogya
Location : Jln Padma Utara Legian
Ambience & Service
This small and unintrusive cafe has had a minor facelift since last year. Immediate service and comfortable setting for such a casual atmosphere. It is an always have at least one or better still 2 meals every trip.
Menu & Presentation: Serving only traditional Indonesian food there are 13 choices of dishes which are ample to large size serves. Juices, soft drinks and beer cold
Prices: Most dishes 12,000 with Lontong Cap Gomeh 16,000 and Nasi Putih 3,000
Sm Bintang 13,000 and large 18,000 . Juices were 5,000
I grinned that ice cubes were listed on the menu as 1,000
Frangipani Rating : 4
Restaurant : Uncle Norms
Location : Jln Melasti Legian
Ambience & Service
Cold towels on arrival - seems to have extended in width since last visit . We did request that the music be changed as was a very upfront and crude song was blasting out of the walls. It was very quite for this end of Jln Melasti as most traffic was being diverted along the beach road.
Menu & Presentation: Basic menu with something to please all tastes. Meals were simply presented and appropriate for this type of cafe
Prices:
Bruschetta 20000
Pizzas 32000 to 42000
Jaffles 15000
Caesar salad 25000
Sirloin 48000
Garlic prawns 48000
Frangipani Rating : 3
Restaurant : Wayan & Friends
Location : Jln Padma Legian
Ambience & Service
Although we chose a front almost footpath table I didn't feel the intrusion of the traffic too much. There were also many street vendors and they too proved entertaining as we purchased a number of 'silly items' from them as they passed by.
Service was attentive and as usual the restaurant was busy.
Menu & Presentation:
The menu doesn't appear to have change much in 12 months and offered a reasonable variety to please most diners. Some set menu options with 3 or 4 courses. I know of a few patrons who each year return to this restaurant and order the same dish. I am one of those people and always order the Weiner Schnitzel .
Prices:
Set options around 70,000
Most mains 35,000 to 45,000
Frangipani Rating : 7
Restaurant : Tommys
Location : Jln. Werkudara ( Rum Jungle )
Ambience & Service This is a deceiving and basic café that has been around a few years. There is an introduction page at the beginning of the menu advising they have home made pickles, sauces , jams & dressings and that they do takeaways. In past years we have sent messages back from the beach and our corn meat, tomato & pickle sandwiches have been delivered. The early morning traffic at 9 was no distraction. The décor is very basic and the few pot plants break the monotony of the older building.
Service sweet and staff eager to please.
Menu & Presentation:
A basic menu although 4 or so pages.
I enjoyed the wholemeal bread with my bacon & eggs
Price:
Bacon & eggs 20,000
Wheet bix 10,500
Croissants 13,500 to 17,500
Salad Roll (cheese+5000) 18,000
Chip sandwich 15,000
Most juices 8,000
Imported teas 7,000
Frangipani Rating : 3
Restaurant : KETUPAT ( A hidden culinary treasure)
Location : 109 Jln Legian
(behind Jonathan Gallery)
Ambience & Service
A Shangri-La and an oasis set around a pool with private and open small and larger alcoves scattered around the perimeter of the restaurant. A very busy restaurant with sufficient staff to attend to your every need. We sat inside the restaurant and occasionally glanced at the many other parties enjoying the fine Indonesian cuisine
Menu & Presentation:
Advertised as genuine Indonesian food. An extensive menu with photos of dishes to help you decide. So hard to decide I chose to have 4 appetizers instead of a main. The corn fritters were a little too dry with just a sprinkle of corn kernels. I was also disappointed with the granita but it was only called a granita and was listed as 'nice fruit syrup with crushed ice'
Prices: My appetizers were 18,000 and mains varied from 35,000 to 90,000
Our total bill for 4 was 580,000
I would certainly return to this restaurant each visit to Bali and would call it the find of our trip
I am sure Tina took a photo of this menu
Frangipani Rating : 9
Restaurant : BALI BAGUS
Location : Jln padma Utara ( Southern end)
Ambience & Service A new restaurant , with local paintings adorning the walls. A very fresh and clean décor and very well patronized place. Staff very attentive on arrival and that was the best part of our dining experience. About 20 minutes after ordering our meal we were asked if we would like desert . Fairly soon after that our meals arrived. I requested that a rather hot barbacue/chilli type sauce be removed from my steak and it was not a problem.
If service and staff that night were any slower they would slip back in to the day before. Not sure if it was because the place was so busy and we were conscious that Belinda had to catch a plane that night but it took forever to work out our bill for 3
Menu & Presentation:
An interesting menu with enough choices of basic international or Indonesian choices.
The food presentations were simple ad in keeping with the atmosphere of the restaurant
They also offer a choice of breakfasts
I will certainly give it another try as I believe it is a place with potential
Price:
Mains from 35,000
Happy hour is between 6 & 8.30
Bintang 7000 & 13000
Sprits 19000
Breakfasts packages from 19000 to 27000 for full English
Frangipani Rating: 5 (it will improve I am sure)
Restaurant: OURS
Location : Jln Sahadewa Legian
Ambience & Service A very welcoming place with staff who are both casual yet attentive and friendly. We attended around 7.30 and at first were not distracted by the background shrill of 'would be' Jimmy Barnes bar patrons who had hold of the microphone. By the time our dinner had arrived we were wishing for a power failure or at best microphone malfunction. I am sure we all ate our meal rather quickly and we were pleasantly surprised with the arrangement of fruit that arrived for Sharon with 4 or 5 lit candles adorning it. The Jimmys began the 'Happy Birthday' chant and staff and other patrons joined in.
Menu & Presentation:
There was a variety of meals available and they were simply presented
Price:
Mains from 30000 to 80000
Frangipani Rating : 5
I will certainly give them another chance as they are all local staff who have banded together to form a co-op and operate this place
Restaurant : Ketumbar
Location : Jln Melasti Legian
Ambience & Service
Very new modern building with 2 levels to choose from. Was again busy the night we visited and sat to the front down stairs watching all the traders return from the beach markets in Kuta. The street was very busy but not noisy. I had problems reading the menu as the lighting was very dim- once I made my decision I appreciated the dull setting. The service was prompt and the manager Giorgio flittered from table to table. Tina felt his presence unintrusive but at the time it annoyed me as he seemed to be always in the background. Let me say it didn't spoil my enjoyable meal.
Menu & Presentation:
A creative menu with plenty to choose from . Disappointed that no salad was available ( day after Nyepi) We enjoyed sharing entrees of seafood rolls, bruschetta and garlic bread.
Tina had catch of the day and it looked taste tempting.
Chicken parmagina looked nice and the Calamari fritti that I had was bland & over cooked
Creme Brulee was especially nice.
Finished the meal with a complementary Ginger limoncello. (Giorgio admitted they created this flavour liqueur by chance). I prefer the original lemon but the ginger was a nice variation
Prices:
Our total for 4 mains, 3 entrees, 2 aquas & 30000 corkage was 300,000
Frangipani Rating : 8
It's one of those places that I will leave on my visit each trip list
Restaurant : Bobbies
Location: Jln Padma (not on street front) Opposite Indonational
Ambience & Service
Very peaceful restaurant nice Balinese background music to match the décor .We were the only diners and after eating I understand why.
Menu & Presentation:
Plenty of choices on menu - 5 pages
Food was very ordinary and disappointing
Price:
Mains 25000 to 50000
Frangipani Rating : 1
Restaurant : Warung Katini
Location : Follow Four Brothers Lane from Padma Utara and head to Jln Legian you should stumble across it
Ambience & Service
It's a family run warung with very basic ' how do you do' décor although I noticed a few changes and improvements from last year. Family all happy to see 5 hungry looking tourists walk in . I would imaging it would be hot at lunchtime but there were fans that kept us comfortable.
Menu & Presentation:
Menu has extended since last year but I feel the serving sizes have reduced although they were ample. I had to remove a small ant from my plate and fortunately he hadn't eaten much otherwise I may have eaten him to compensate the serving loss.
Price:
We had 5 mains , 2 large Bintangs, 6 small Bintangs , 4 soft drinks and miss piggy had 'tried''bananas. We were also treated to a complementary fruit plate . Total bill was 168,000
Frangipani Rating : 3.5
So nice to see them still doing OK
Restaurant : DROPS
Location : Jln Padma Legian
Ambience & Service
Very ultra modern décor and attentive staff . We were only there for cocktails & desert and I felt the service rather slow.
Menu & Presentation:
Deserts to die for
Price:
I think for 5 deserts and 5 cocktails our bill was just over 500,000
Frangipani Rating : 7.5
Restaurant : Billys
Location : Jln Sahadewa Legian
Ambience & Service
Excellent attention the minute we walked in . We mentioned we were expecting more and the tables were immediately joined. Jack ( I assume the manager) should be called Jumping Jack Flash - he was so 'with it' and enjoyed spending time will all at the table - his friendly conversation engagements were sincere and genuine. A great venue to kick back and enjoy moment.
Menu & Presentation:
Plenty of different dishes to choose from and something to please all.
The garlic bread with cheese topping was enjoyable to help wash down the 3 or 4 Bintangs. Beer was extremely cold only disappointment there were only large bottles available. The Beef Schnitzel was a little greasy.
Price:
Very cheap prices with mains from 25,000
Frangipani Rating : 5